Convictions Upheld In Showbiz Piracy Case

The Motion Picture Association which reps Paramount, Sony, Fox, Universal, Disney, and Warner Bros in the global marketplace released this notice today:

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — The Court of Appeals in Sweden this afternoon upheld the criminal convictions for copyright infringement against three of the individuals in The Pirate Bay case. The three, Frederik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström, had appealed their convictions for copyright infringement imposed by the Stockholm District Court in April 2009.

Following this afternoon’s announcement, Chris Marcich, President and Managing Director of the MPA Europe said

“Now that a Swedish Court has declared the operators of The Pirate Bay guilty of copyright infringement for a second time, we hope the relevant authorities will take the appropriate action to ensure that the site ceases its illegal activities. The Pirate Bay has flaunted the law while continuing to cause serious harm to the creative economy globally, generating substantial revenues for its operators. The decision of the Swedish Court of Appeals today upholding the criminal convictions of the Pirate Bay operators is very much welcomed. This confirms that such activities are illegal and if you engage in them, you run the risk of very significant consequences.

The Pirate Bay’s sole purpose is to facilitate and promote the unlawful dissemination of copyrighted content for the profit of the site operators. The entire business model is built upon copyright infringement. Preventing illegal distribution of copyrighted material on the internet is central to protecting the rights of copyright holders, and also to supporting the continued investment in new online services and the creation of new films and television programmes. “

Note: The fourth defendant Gottfrid Svartholm was also convicted of the same offence and also appealed. His appeal was postponed due to his ill-health and is yet to be heard.

Following the appeal by the defendants against their convictions, rights-holders appealed the decision of the District Court in relation to the damages awarded against the operators for their infringing activities. In a welcome move, the Court of Appeal increased the amount of damages payable to 46 million SEK (up from 32m SEK).

The Court of Appeals did, however, revise the term of the prison sentences against each of the appellants based on their level of participation:. Neij was sentenced to 10 months, Sunde to 8 months and Lundström to 4 months. Each was originally sentenced to a one year term.

BACKGROUND:- In February 2009 four defendants; Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström, were charged with contributing to copyright infringement by facilitating the illegal distribution of copyrighted material in relation to the unauthorized online distribution service, The Pirate Bay. All four were convicted on April 17, 2009 and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. Substantial damages were also awarded against them.

This was an important decision for rights-holders, underlining their right to have their creative works protected against illegal exploitation and to be fairly rewarded for their endeavours.

The four immediately appealed both their criminal conviction and the damages award. (The one year’s prison sentences were delayed pending the appeal).

27 Comments

jennifer • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

It’s just hilarious if they think this will make the slightest dent in the amount of piracy. The studios churn out so much garbage, people don’t want to be suckered by dishonest marketing and hype. And then when they justify higher prices for something like Avatar, you get amazing visuals before you’re insulted by the hackneyed, juvenile writing. Good luck slimebags!

Grandpa Munster's Guntster • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

What’s even worse, is that none of these films were even worth watching in the first place…

I expect this news item will be skimmed past by most Deadline readers, even though it’s about the most fundamental issue facing the industry.

The problem is, that it’s also like a virus, or a scene from The Matrix, The Pirate Bay founders will proudly do their time if they don’t simply go somewhere else, but more pertinently, there is no way to put the code back onto the bottle. Anyone can, will and have created their own Pirate Bays, and now, the sofctware caught up to move onto Usenet again if there even was any chance of TPB/BT to go away.

BitTorrent, the legimate company has about 60m+/_ users, then there’s private trackers and Demonoid, et al, where users are willing to pay providers for copyrighted material, but won’t pay the actual original source – for all the hype, iTunes only has 180m users, a fraction of the broadband population.

What to do, but change the mindset, and remove the barriers to legitimate access.

Yours kindly,

Shakir Razak

BugMeNot • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

What a shame that a court would follow the PR-spin of those rich comglomerates!

How on earth should anyone outside the US ever see great shows like Survivor or TAR if it weren’t for sites like PirateBay? You can’t watch them in Europe in TV and you can’t buy them either.

The same for all the Region A locked Blu-Rays like Dexter when there are no Region B releases of it.

Tom • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

Okay, now that that’s over, on to a more interesting question.

When will there be a public website where I can:
1. watch every movie
2. watch all teve series episodes as soon as they are “aired” in the US
3. access the site from all over the world
4. pay a monthly subscription fee to make everything legal

I mean, it’s so medieval to have to wait for months or years for an episode of my favourite teve series, when it’s available in the US.

The whole concept of TV is outdated. Why should we let someone else decide exactly when we must sit down in front of a screen to watch a product? Make things available globally, at the same time, let us choose when to watch it, and let us pay for it.

And think globally. Region coding DVDs and Blu-rays, surely there must be a better business model allowing for simultaneous global releases of media?

Wordsmith • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

“The Pirate Bay has flaunted the law…” This does not make sense. Presumably, the author means “flouted”.

Ferengi • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

one torrent site down? big deal… there are 1000000 others out there. good luck.

Erik • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

Good and good.

Sanity • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

The owners of the Pirate Bay never uploaded anything copyrighted, their users did. If someone buys drugs on Facebook can we prosecute Mark Zuckerberg?

repo man • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

If the drugs can be physically/digitally reproduced and transmitted through the website ala music files…then yes.

Ender • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

GOOD. Throw those thieves in jail!

repo man • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

Hear, hear

Kabbe • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

you are pathetic.

Wordsmith • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

Tom, I couldn’t agree more.

The technology exists and it is high time this industry got it’s act together.

christ almighty • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

Thirded.

I guess these studios are actually not that interested in making money. They’d rather spend it on lawyers and on preserving cripplingly outdate modes of doing business. It’s deeply embarrassing.

Let me repeat: It is a myth that people won’t pay for product. People just want the damn products. Get your heads out of your asses.

Foamy • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

Two things.

First, the problems with global content streaming/download are legal rather than technical. No studio wants to open themselves up to lawsuits from companies who have existing distribution agreements, from government agencies who feel the content violates their broadcast standards laws, from local producers who have similarly trademarked/themed content in that market, or from the original content creators who never gave permission to supply content to China because they oppose the occupation of Tibet. And that’s just for starters…

Second, studios make far more money from “outdated modes of doing business” than any of the streaming content models. 90% of content on iTunes fails to sell a single copy, YouTube has yet to post a profit while costing $450million per year to run, and while Hulu has announced profitability, the networks supplying content get only ~$50million each from an entire library – a fraction compared to the $1billion generated by a single year’s worth of content from the “cripplingly outdated” TV model. While it’s debatable whether online channels cannibalize traditional channels in terms of consumers, you can bet your bottom dollar it cannibalizes their ability to sell rights to international broadcast companies.

Yes, online is the future, but studios and networks have good reason not to just dump their entire library on the internet.

repo man • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

“It is a myth that people won’t pay for product.”

I guess I must have been hearing things when people told me “Why should I pay when I can get it for free?”

Paul • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

This is good news. Hopefully other governments will follow suit. Studios need to continue to financially support this type of litigation.

Mike Fe. • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

Why do TV episodes cost so much to watch? I paid $18 for 9 Mad Men on-demand episodes on amazon.com. They are inferior video quality, and PG-13. They cut out the cuss words and the sex scenes. I feel like a complete idiot for not pirating these instead.

Not a Scumbag Thief • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

I want X, but can’t get it where I live?
I want Y, but don’t want to pay for it?
I want Z, but think the price is to high?
So my answer is … I WILL STEAL IT.
I will take what isn’t mine and not pay what the owner
wants to be paid for it.
In ANY other field, this is stealing and there wouldn’t be a a debate.
But a bunch of lazy, unethical, rationalizing scumbags think it is ok to steal the work of
others.
F U! And I LOVE IT when you pieces of garbage get criminally prosecuted and
I can’t wait until some Gen Y waste-of-space gets 4 1/2 years in prison for downloading the new TRON. That prosecution is coming — legislation is being drafted as we speak — can’t wait! CAN’T WAIT!

vee • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

A bit over the top aren’t we?
So, our jails & prisons will be
filled to overflow with mostly
kids watching a movie illegally
& thats ok with you?
Bite me.

SurferDoc • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

The PTB are shoveling shit against the tide. The Code Kids will prevail.
The Laws of Digital:

Nothing can be hidden that can’t be found.

Nothing can be locked that can’t be unlocked.

Nothing can be encrypted that can’t be decrypted.

(By a 14 year old kid.)

The successor to torrents is in the pipelind somewhere already. It will be harder to find and to stop. Count on it.

chris • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

there’s a huge drop in production, lots of people losing their jobs because movies are pirated. We can’t create content and employ people if movies don’t make money, profits pay for being able to tell new stories, to bet on new filmmakers, to bet on new talents, someone needs to make money to be able to create those films and employ people… stop stealing movies if you like watching them! If movies suck, then don’t watch them at all, nobody’s forcing you to download them, pay for them or pirate them

cookmeyer1970 • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

The unjustified entitlement some of you are expressing here is disgusting. You claim the movies are shit so you feel you should get to watch them for free? Yeah, that makes sense. Go watch homemade movies on youtube if you don’t want to pay for it, but drop the attitude about how hollywood owes you free product. They don’t owe you shit. And for their survival, the studios need to get with the times, but in the meantime, their lack of flexibility does not give you the *right* to steal.

dudette • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

rearranging chairs on the titanic.

dave • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

There are two things that come to mind whenever these things come up.
1) Russia and China do not have or honor Copyright Laws. So why are there so many DVDs made in China?
2) When I was young, vinyl albums cost $3.95. Since then a device was invented that lowered the Cost Of Producing those records to about a third of what they used to cost, (i.e. The CD.) So the altruistic Corporations who are trying to put the children in jail because they copied records raised the price of records from $3.95 to $16.95. So who is the thief?

I find it wonderful to think about the fact that a DVD costs the same as a CD to produce, but somehow the DVD costs about $40.00 to buy. Isn’t it wonderful. You can argue that there are more people involved, but you have to cross your fingers behind your back when you talk about the way money moves into intangible accounts (like advertising) that make it so that the movie doesn’t make a profit no matter how large the box-office is.

Think about it, “The Dark Knight” grossed more than the GNP of 90% of the countries in the world, but the teen-aged kids stole “most of the profit” by making copies and giving those to their friends, (i.e. “Pirating the movie.”) (And that was merely rhetoric, I have no idea what the real figures are, and it is not worth my time to try and decode the lies in the crooked Hollywood bookkeeping.)

Now, everybody admits that “Stealing is Stealing,” but, I suspect that Stealing from a thief should have a different category. The whole country was broken when the Lawyers created laws that allowed Corporations to “Own” “Intellectual Property.” Have you ever seen a corporation create?

Long John Silver • on Nov 26, 2010 9:12 am

Torrents are SO 2000’s

To think that shutting down 1 Bit Torrent site wil affect anything is ‘cute.’

Ever heard of megaupload, rapidshare, fileshare? These direct download sites have 1000 times the amount of media stored on them, AND the downloads are 10x the speed!